The U.S. also is failing to institute basic safeguards required by international law for recruitment of youth under 18. A provision of the No Child Left Behind Act forces schools to open their doors to military recruiters who heavily recruit on high school campuses without parents' consent, in violation of international law . And while international law requires that youths' recruitment be genuinely voluntary, exaggerated promises of financial rewards and coercion, deception, and other abusive recruitment practices undermine the so-called 'voluntariness' of recruitment.

The U.S. is also failing to protect the rights of foreign child soldiers. Alleged child soldiers such as Omar Khadr are held at Guantanamo and U.S.-run prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan without any regard for their juvenile status. And former child soldiers seeking asylum in the U.S. because they can't safely return to their home countries - including those that were abducted and forced to fight in government armies and militias - are often denied protection under immigration statutes meant to keep out those who victimized them.

The Committee on the Rights of the Child will review the ACLU report before questioning a U.S. government delegation on its compliance with protocol obligations May 22 in Geneva.